MONUMENT NO. 407834

Site of a Roman villa excavated in 1854 and between 1967-87 with a possible bath house dating from the 1st to the early 5th century; the buildings were originally of timber but were replaced by stone structures. Corn drying kilns, possible pottery kilnsand some metalworking evidence has also been found. Late Neolithic/early Bronze Age lithic implements, an Iron Age settlement and a ritual shaft were also found. Early Medieval pottery, Medieval and Post Medieval ditches and robbing pits have also been found.

In 1854 a Roman 'villa' was excavated by Corner in Lower Warbank Field, Keston. Mrs. Fox describes it as a basilican house later converted to domestic use. (Corner's plan confirms the O.S. siting but Mrs. Fox states that his plan is not to scale and the exact position is uncertain). In 1828 foundations were discovered underlying the hedge dividing Lower Warbank Field and Eight Acres Field. These were excavated in 1854 by Corner and in 1951-3 by Mrs Fox, (sited by plan - A0/LP/63/194 to TQ 41366322). Her excavation, confined to Eight Acres Field, uncovered a building which was a wing or projection of a larger complex in Lower Warbank Field. From this excavation and earlier evidence she dated the site from c.85.A.D. to the 4th c. Belgic pottery was also found. Further building foundations in Malthouse Field (east of Lower Warbank) are noted by Kempe. (2-4)

There are no surface indications of these buildings and only the site of Mrs. Fox's excavation can be confirmed. Large flints on the surface at TQ 41316327, a spot said to be very difficult to plough, may indicate the site of a further building. (5)

Emergency excavations began in the Lower Warbank field in 1968, in advance of a new road. Work was started on the old villa site and a building over 100 ft. in length, perhaps the main villa block, was uncovered with two projecting rooms possibly forming part of two wings. The southern wing probably contained a hypocaust and may have related to a bath-house. Walls were 2-3 ft. in thickness. No complete flooring was found, although there was a scatter of tesserae. Enclosure ditches containing an Iron Age Potin coin (8), and Iron Age and Roman pottery, predating the villa were found. A series of about a dozen circular post holes were uncovered under the east corridor of the villa probably representing a hut site of a sub-rectangular outline. A second hut site and rubbish and storage pits have also been found, including a bell-shaped storage pit with much 1st. century BC, pottery and several clay loom-weights. Saxon pottery was also found on the site. (6-8)

The sub-rectangular hut site beneath Lower Warbank villa (see authority 6 plan) was assigned to the early Iron Age by Rodwell. (9)

Excavations at Lower Warbank were undertaken by the West Kent Archaeological Group and the Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit between 1967 and 1987. Work undertaken in 1968-78 based on the villa complex in Lower Warbank Field. Later work on the remainder of the complex in the adjacent Eight Acre Field, along with excavation of the mausoleum site to the north (TQ 46 SW 6) are to be published in the near future. Features and finds in Lower Warbank Field have been grouped into 9 phases, or periods. The earliest activity, Period 1, is represented by a scatter of worked flints containing little in the way of diagnostic material and assigned an approximate later Neolithic or Early Bronze Age date, largely on the basis of two possible arrowheads. The earliest datable features have been assigned to Period 2. The maximum time span for this period - 600-200 BC - is based on study of the pottery assemblage from the handful of features assigned to this period. A gap in occupation of the site in the later Iron Age may coincide with construction and use of the nearby hillfort of Caesar's Camp, Holwood (TQ 46 SE 5) c. 1km to the north-east. Periods 3 to 7 seem to represent continuous occupation from c. 50 BC through to the end of the 4th century AD or later. During this time a farmstaead consisting of timber buildings, storage pits and ditched enclosures develops into a larger complex featuring up to 3 stone buildings plus numerous ancillary structures and features. Notable features at various points in the site's history include corn-drying kilns, water tanks, water-pipes, and a possible pottery kiln. There is also some evidence for metalworking. The demise of the site is dated mainly by reference to coin and pottery evidence, none of which is of particularly good quality. Hence a terminal date either at the end of the 4th century or early in the 5th is suggested by the excavator. The relationship between the grubenhaus (TQ 46 SW 28) found in the middle of the site and the Romano-British villa is unclear. Later features include Medieval and Post-Medieval ditches and robbing pits. (10)

Later discoveries include a "ritual shaft" c. 16 feet deep and containing more than 25 animal skeletons including 3 complete horses laid out nose to tail around the sides of the shaft. Other features include the remainder of one of the buildings examined during the earlier phase of excavation plus associated features. (11-12)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

6" 1961

( 2) Kent Archaeological Society Archaeologia Cantiana : being contributions to the history and archaeology of Kent

Piercy-Fox N 69, 1955 Page(s)96-116

( 3) Society of Antiquaries of London Archaeologia : or miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity

Corner G R 36, 1855 Page(s)120-8

( 4) Society of Antiquaries of London Archaeologia : or miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity

Kempe A J 22, 1829 Page(s)342-4

( 5) Field Investigators Comments

F1 CFW 11-SEP-64

( 6) Council for Kentish Archaeology Kent archaeological review

Philp B 21, 1970 Page(s)21

( 7) Council for Kentish Archaeology Kent archaeological review

Mynott E 30, 1972-3 Page(s)292

( 8) Council for Kentish Archaeology Kent archaeological review

Allen D F 22, 1970-1 Page(s)58

( 9) edited by Barry Cunliffe and Trevor Rowley ; prepared for publication by Sylvia Pryor 1978 Lowland Iron Age communities in Europe : papers presented to a conference of the Department for External Studies held at Oxford, October 1977